Daily Times

The first vessel carrying 65 tonnes of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has arrived at Karachi Port from Qatar, yet the controversy surrounding this import deal has not been cleared. Confusion persists over the LNG deal with Qatar as the government has not yet disclosed the price of the gas. Under the $ 22 billion reported deal, Qatar agreed to supply 500 million cubic feet of LNG per day for 15 years. However, there was no official word on the LNG deal and details about the cost and sale price. The need to import LNG is a result of the gas shortage and relatively higher cost of power generation through furnace oil and diesel fuel. The government is not ready to give a satisfactory response about the deal, which has given birth to certain controversies besides politicising the issue as it has already been discussed on the National Assembly floor. There are speculations that the deal hovers around $ 7-9 per MMBTU that is lower compared to other countries that are importing LNG. The LNG will be pumped into the national gas grid to ease the gas supply and power crisis. Due to the ambiguous reply from the Ministry of Petroleum that is tasked with the finalisation of the import, there are speculations that the whole deal process lacks transparency. Other factors that make the LNG issue controversial include the absence of proper infrastructure to offload and store and then transport the gas to various parts of the country. There are also reports about the reservations of the Sindh government regarding the deal. Some quarters concerned have confided to the media that during the recent tour of the Emir of Qatar, the LNG deal was about to be signed but due to the absence of homework by the concerned Ministry of Petroleum, it was not signed. According to the reports, the deal would be signed in the last week of the current month. The most conflicting issue of the deal is that the government has not made public the pricing formula yet. The government claims that it cannot make public the details of the agreement due to the international norms involving such contracts.

Whatever the circumstances, if the government is sincere in the deal, it should make public the whole process and the procedure regarding the purchase of LNG. The more the government delays the clearing of the confusion, the more controversies will surface and the credibility of the government will remain at stake. The government should take the public into confidence over the issue. Even if there are any difficulties, it should share them with the public so that all speculations are put to rest. *